Šumava National Park head resigns

Prague, Nov 1 (CTK) - Czech Sumava National Park head Frantisek Krejci yesterday handed in his resignation in connection with Environment Minister Pavel Drobil's new concept of the park.

Drobil (Civic Democrats, ODS) accepted the resignation yesterday.

He said a competition for the post would be launched so that a new director could assume the post as from January 1, 2011.

Krejci was appointed in March 2007 by then environment minister Martin Bursik (Greens, SZ) who pushed through the regime without any human intervention into the ecosystem in the most protected parts of the national park.

Drobil is now revising this policy.

"He (Krejci) has decided to resign not to block further talks on the new concept of the Sumava National Park about which he is convinced that it is a path into the right direction, and an agreement on the park's future administrative settlement," Environment Ministry spokeswoman Jarmila Krebsova told CTK.

Drobil reckons with future cooperation with Krejci in the sector, she added.

Zdenka Sartnerova, from the park's administration economic section, was temporarily assigned to head the national park.

The Friends of the Earth (Duha) environmental association says Drobil forced Krejci to resign.

Krejci made big logging companies angry by the introduction of "mini-tenders" for works in the park, activist Jaromir Blaha told CTK.

Senator Tomas Jirsa (ODS), mayor of Hluboka nad Vltavou, south Mohemia, who defended his post in the October polls, was seeking Krejci's dismissal for two years.

Jirsa refused to comment on his resignation.

Blaha indicated that a forestry joint-stock company from Hluboka was strongly interested in logging in Sumava.

South Bohemia Regional Governor Jiri Zimola (Social Democrats, CSSD) who last year initiated the Save Sumava petition, said Krejci's resignation did not surprise him. He added it was a logical result of long-term disputes in the park.

Most addressed representatives of municipalities in the Sumava region have welcomed Krejci's resignation.

Krejci said he believed that the area of the national park would not be reduced after this departure.

Krejci said his management had reached a number of successes.

It approved the park visitors' code of conduct with all local mayors' consent and prepared the plan of care for protected areas. Moreover, 30 percent of Sumava forests in the zone without human touch were stabilised, Krejci added.

Sumava, situated in west and south Bohemia, is the largest national park in the Czech Republic covering 16,827 hectares. Along with the Bavarian Forest National Park with 5843 hectares of mountainous spruce forests make up the largest continuous belt of this type of forest in central Europe.